Lynch dismissal could be ‘wake-up call,’ Knight says

Lamar sophomore point guard Tre Lynch is off the basketball team because of poor grades, and coach Pat Knight said Thursday he hopes the dismissal is a wake-up call for other players.

Lynch, who averaged 3.5 points and 12.3 minutes in 18 games, will remain on scholarship at Lamar until the end of the semester. He will not return next season, Knight said.

“He’s done,” Knight said. “There’s no story behind it or anything. If he can’t make grades, he’s ineligible. … We’ll help him out. He’s got to get his grades together so he can go somewhere.

“We’ll keep him on scholarship for the semester. We didn’t have to do that either. We’ll keep him on this semester to get his grades up, and then he’s done.”

Lynch’s departure opens another scholarship for next season. Lamar currently has six players either signed for verbally committed to replace the six seniors leaving after this season.

“I think it’s good,” Knight said of the dismissal. “It’s wakes guys up. I think there’s a correlation between how you are in the classroom and how you are on the court. This is one of the worst teams I’ve ever been around from a classroom standpoint. I think it’s going to wake some guys up.”

Lynch had played behind senior point guard Anthony Miles, but senior Mike James and junior Donley Minor will rotate guard positions.

“We’ve got to do a better job rotating ‘Buck’ and Mike and Donley,” Knight said. “That’s still a pretty good rotation with just the three of them. If we take Anthony out, Mike can bring it up. And we can put Anthony back in for Mike and just have that three-person kind of deal.”

Asked if losing a guard makes things more difficult, Knight said, “I think it makes things easier. I think we needed to shorten the rotation down anyway. It certainly helps up shorten the rotation. I think it will be beneficial.”